Mechanical devices having associated features are frequently designed using Finite Element Analysis (“FEA”) software applications. For example, a hood of an automobile formed from a piece of sheet metal may be modeled by a FEA software application. To model the forming of a material into a particular shape, the FEA application may generate a mesh that models the material in its initial state. Then the FEA application incrementally determines the displacement of each element of the mesh based on certain boundary conditions until a resulting mesh models the desired shape of the material.
A feature associated with the device, such as an air intake vent positioned over the hood, may be modeled by incorporating the shape of the feature into the FEA process. Because modeling a feature as a part of the mesh requires a more complex mesh having more elements, such a modeling adds complexity to the FEA process.